The invention relates to horses and more specifically to horseshoes that protect the underside of the horses hoofs, during recreational or professional riding.
In the past most horseshoes were made of metal and required nails or screws for them to be attached to the hoof of a horse.
It is known in the prior art that a synthetic horseshoe can be glued or nailed to the hoof of a horse to keep it in its proper position. This is shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,310,115; 3,513,915; 3,519,079; 4,690,222; and 5,213,163. All of these patents require the proper sized horseshoe to obtain a correct fit. Also the bottom edge of the horseshoes of these patents do not have a bottom edge that can be customized, in a simple manner to suit the individual horse, conditions, rider or purpose of the ride.
The horseshoe shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,310,115 requires that special tools be used before the shoe is attached and then to actually attach it to the hoof. Special tools are generally required to get the grooves cut on the outside edge of the horse""s hoof that have to be complimentary and aligned with the shoe for correct attachment.
The horseshoe shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,513,915 requires nails to be inserted in nail openings to attach the shoe to the hoof of the horse. In this patent, both the pad and gripping member edge of the synthetic shoe, have been impregnated with a plurality of uniformly and closely spaced metal fragments.
The horseshoe shown is U.S. Pat. No. 4,690,222 has a hard inner member that makes it very difficult to shape and be configured to the hoof. The horseshoe is rigid and does not allow for complete and unrestricted movement(expansion and contraction) of the hoof, which is the natural shock absorber for the horse.
It is an object of the invention to provide a novel multi-sizable horseshoe that can be fitted to horses having various sized hoofs.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a novel horseshoe having a gripping edge along the complete outside bottom edge of the horseshoe that can be easily customized to compensate to the requirements of the surface, weather, or individual rider. This modification can be accomplished simply by using the farrier tools(nipper and rasp), and gripping the edge, which can then be shaped from a flat to a deep cut, sharp angle, toe grab or heel grab, deep toe, short heel, or vise versa. The options are numerous and therefore can be performed to fit conditions and the individual.
It is another object of the invention to provide a novel multi-sizable horseshoe that is made of synthetic material that acts like a shock absorber for the hoof and foot by expanding and contracting, when the hoof makes contact with the ground surface.
It is an additional object of the invention to provide a novel multi-sizable horseshoe having a plurality of protrusions formed on the top surface of a horseshoe-shaped body member that contact the bottom surface of a horse""s hoof thereby providing a chamber between the bottom surface of a horse""s hoof and the top surface of the body member for receiving glue injected therein for bonding the horseshoe to the bottom of the horse""s hoof.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a novel method of applying a synthetic material horseshoe to the bottom surface of a horse""s hoof.
It is an object of the invention to provide a novel multi-sizable horseshoe that is economical to manufacture and market.
It is another object of the invention to provide a novel multi-sizable horseshoe: that is easily and quickly attached to a horse""s hoof.
It is an additional object of the invention to provide a novel multi-sizable horseshoe that is made of lightweight material.
The multi-sizable horseshoe has been designed to allow a single horseshoe to fit all different sizes of horse hoofs. The horseshoe itself is made of a flexible synthetic material, such as urethane having a horizontally oriented horseshoe-shaped body member. The body member has an outer edge, an inner edge, a top surface and a bottom surface. An outer gripping edge extends downwardly from the outer edge of the body member. An outside rim extends upwardly from the outer edge of the body member. A plurality of spaced protrusions extend upwardly from the top surface of the body member. An inner gripping edge or flange extends downwardly from the bottom surface of the body member. A plurality of bore holes extend upwardly from the bottom surface of the body member to its top surface.
The horseshoe body member is purposefully formed with its laterally spaced heel members initially spaced fairly close together. This allows the single horseshoe to be fit to horses having many different sized hoofs. Any excess length of the heel members that extends over the end of the bottom surface of the horse""s hoof area is easily trimmed by a farrier with his nipper or cutting tools.
The protrusions keep the bottom surface of the hoof spaced upwardly from the top surface of the horseshoe-shaped body member a predetermined height to form a chamber or cavity therebetween. This chamber is filled with a rapid setting glue made of a material such as urethane to adhere the horseshoe to the bottom of the surface of the horse""s hoof. The process in which the horseshoe is bonded to the bottom of the horse""s hoof will now be described.
Initially a drop of an instant glue, such as an acrylic glue, is applied to the top surface of each of the laterally spaced protrusions. The horseshoe is then placed in contact with the bottom surface of the horse""s hoof causing the instant glue to form an initial bond that occurs in less than 30 seconds. This initial bond allows the farrier to then take the required time in which to inject a second rapid setting glue upwardly through each of the respective bore holes until the chamber between the top surface of the body member and the bottom surface of the horse""s hoof are completely filled. Once this occurs, excess glue will also travel up the inside surface of the outside rim and against the outside surface of the horse""s hoof. Inwardly extending protrusions may also be formed on the inner surfaces of the outside rim to allow more glue to adhere to the outside surface of the horse""s hoof. Additional overflow glue will spread inwardly over the beveled inner edge of the body member and also the laterally spaced notches to form additional interlocking structure for the horseshoe to the horse""s hoof. In some instances the farrier will drill holes upwardly through the bore holes into the bottom of the horse""s hoof about xc2xc inch. The glue that has been injected into each of the chambers will also fill the holes in the bottom of the horse""s hoof and form glue nails. These nails are often known as liquid nails.